It is a common misconception that the Kothari Commission Report recommended that the common school concept that it envisioned would be implemented by having just one kind of ‘common’ school. The Report accepted that there would be ordinary government and government aided schools, but their quality would be raised to a minimum standard; about 10% government schools would be of better quality (like the Navodaya and Kendriya Vidyalayas); and private schools would exist; which would have to be kept out of the common school system. Here is what the Kothari Commission said:

A nation-wide programme of school improvement should be organized with three objectives: (a) to raise all schools to at least to a minimum prescribed level; (b) to assist every school to rise to the highest level of which it is capable; and (c) during the next ten years, to raise at least ten percent of the institutions to an optimum standard.

Raising all schools to a minimum prescribed level is what the mandatory schedule of norms and standards in the Act is intended for. As for private schools, the Kothari Commission (section 10.77) acknowledged that:

“The right to establish private schools for any purpose whatsoever has also been given to all citizens under clauses (c) and (g) of Article 19 which provide that all citizens shall have the right ‘to form associations’ and to ‘practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business’ and which obviously covers the right of individuals and groups to establish and conduct educational institutions of their choice. Private schools may, therefore, be established under the provisions of the Constitution and, if they do not seek aid or recognition from the State, they will have to be treated as being outside the national system of public education.”

Common school is defined as part of the National System of Education in the Report.

The Act is very much in line with these prescriptions; perhaps better because it mandates private schools would be obliged to take 25% children from disadvantaged groups from their neighbourhoods, without screening; where as the Kothari Commission Report suggested that talented children should be sent on scholarships to these schools, that would entail admission tests.